As a child her will had always had to bend to her
mother's. Scarcely had she dared to hold an opinion on anything save
under her mother's direction, and so when it came about that the tricksy
god of love made her give her heart passionately and utterly to a man of
whom her parents disapproved, poor Janet Dalrymple must have felt as
though she were the victim of a sort of moral earthquake. Naturally she
could see no reason why the man who in her eyes was peerless was not
approved by her parents. Surely his politics did not matter. He had
money enough for all their needs, and he would make her the Lady
Rutherfurd; and, besides, what more could they want than just this--that
he loved her and she loved him, and they would love each other until
death--and after it.
These reasons given to a woman of Lady Stair's type were scarcely likely
to be listened to with much patience, and Janet Dalrymple and Lord
Rutherfurd soon saw that all their love-making must be done under the
rose, and that they must wait as best they could for the obdurate
parents to change their minds. Together they broke a gold coin, of which
each wore a half, and solemnly called upon God to witness them plighting
their troth, and together imprecated dreadful evils upon the one who
should prove faithless.
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